The Summer Box Office Challenge Week 8: Can Clint Eastwood or Kevin Hart Take Down the Boys from Jump Street?
Welcome to week eight of our 2014 Summer Box-Office Challenge!
Think of it as a summer-long contest for movie-lovers – you’ll make predictions and guesses as to which summer movies will rule the box-office each week, we award points and at the end of the contest the three top point-earners will each win a Blu-ray/DVD prize pack! First place will win ten (10) Blu-ray/DVD titles released throughout the coming summer, second place wins five (5) and third place wins two (2). We’ll have bonus questions each week as well to help bolster your point totals and keep you in the running.
I said last week that either one of Friday’s new releases (22 Jump Street, How to Train Your Dragon 2) could open at #1, but the expectation (and the professional prognosticators) leaned towards the animated dragon taking the top spot. Surprise! Bigger audiences turned out for the R-rated comedy than for the kids flick to the tune of a $10 million difference. The estimates have Jump opening at $60m and Dragon taking #2 with $50m. Only two players correctly pegged Jump as the #1 film, and very few of you thought The Rover would have a per screen average higher than $13k (it was $14k), so there’s only a minor change in our top five. We’ll update once the actuals come in later today, but expect no change in this ranking.
- Chris B – 18 points
- AKFilmfan – 18 pts (tied for 1st)
- Thomas McCallum – 17 pts
- Husain – 17 pts (tied for 3rd)
- Gary Salem – 16 pts
And now it’s on to week eight! Check out the challenge questions below and play along in the comments section.
We once again have two new releases opening this week – Jersey Boys, Think Like a Man 2 – but does anyone think either one of them will nab the top spot? Clint Eastwood’s highest opening weekend as director was Space Cowboys at $18m, and that was fourteen years ago. Can an adaptation of a stage musical beat that? Tim Story’s Think Like a Man sequel has a chance to take #1 if it can match the first film’s $33m opening, but it depends on how far Jump falls in its second week.
To enter, leave a comment below with your answers to these questions by 11:59 pm Central time Wednesday:
- Predict the #1 film at the box office for June 20–22 and how much it will earn: The closest correct answer earns 5 points, the 2nd closest earns 3 points and a correct guess within one million dollars earns an additional 2 points. (Example: “The Rover, $33m”)
- Bonus Question: Roman Polanski’s last film, Carnage, opened to $80k in five theaters in 2011. His new film, Venus In Furs, opens in two theaters this week. Will it make more or less than $32k? A correct answer earns two points.
Here are the incredibly simple rules:
- The cutoff for predictions is 11:59 pm Central time each Wednesday, and there will be no exceptions.
- Predictions are for Friday to Sunday domestic box office as reported by Box Office Mojo.
- The contest runs through the weekend of July 25–27 (that will be the final round).
- Be sure your Disqus info is accurate and consistent as that’s how we’ll be tracking your guesses week to week and contacting our three winners.
- Comment edits made AFTER the cutoff time constitute cheating and will result in player forfeit.
We’ll return next Monday for week 9 and our updated leader-board. Thanks for playing and good luck!